Woods Comes Back Again to Stun Mediate

Had Rocco Mediate won the U.S. Open, he would not have been the most surprising Grand Slam champion in the Tiger Woods era. Ben Curtis was ranked 396th in the world, and had the name recognition to match, when he won the 2003 British Open. But that year, Woods finished two strokes back. On Monday, Mr. Mediate, ranked 158th in the world, tried to beat Woods in a playoff after watching the 13-time Grand Slam winner catch up on the 18th hole the day before. And the 45-year-old journeyman very nearly did. But Woods again recovered a stroke on the final hole to force more golf, and won in the first hole of sudden-death play.

Rocco Mediate can only look on as Woods celebrates his 14th major title. (Photo by Getty Images)

“This was melodrama, symbolism and a gentlemanly sport raised to its apotheosis,” Thomas Boswell writes in the Washington Post. “And, for Woods, who confessed after this round that he may have reinjured his surgically repaired knee, that he played against his doctor’s advice, yet has never been prouder of himself, this tournament on the Pacific bluffs completed a life-cycle circle on Father’s Day weekend.” The victory came at Torrey Pines South, a course of some significance in the relationship between Woods and his late father, Earl.

Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Jim Souhan describes the tableau that only a major-tournament playoff can provide: “A 360-degree view from the seventh green that included the Pacific, a hang glider flying over the third green, and multihued canyons. Thousands of fans sprinting to see the final shots of the tournament, then turning so silent you could hear the surf pounding the beach.”

After it was over, Woods was again a champion, Mr. Mediate still without a major title. “The two men hugged,” Filip Bondy writes in the New York Daily News. “Woods zipped away in a golf cart within a minute, off to collect his trophy. He is a busy athlete. Woods has 14 Grand Slam triumphs in his pocket now, and was already one day late for a business appointment in Mexico. Mediate stood alone on the seventh green, looking utterly spent.”

But so was Woods, and particularly his surgically repaired left knee, a victim of the fierce force behind its owner’s stroke. “Critics thought life experiences — marriage, fatherhood, the death of a parent, his beloved father, Earl — might soften his focus,” Bill Livingston writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Instead, what made him great may bring him down.” (The winner’s instructor, Hank Haney, acknowledged to ESPN’s Bob Harig that playing this tournament may impede the champ’s recovery.)

All the focus on Woods and Earl overshadowed the rest of the field and its roots, at least on NBC’s coverage. “For most of Father’s Day, Woods seemed to be the only son playing at Torrey Pines until a late mention of Lee Westwood’s sire,” Richard Sandomir writes in the New York Times. “What about everybody else’s dads? Mediate was created in part by a father, but NBC preferred to link him to another pop, Arnold Palmer, his pal in Latrobe, Pa. We would hear about Mediate’s sons, but only after repeated mentions of Sunday’s being Woods’s first Father’s Day as a father.”

Sports Illustrated’s John Garrity helps correct the oversight by writing about the tournament’s many losers, notably Phil Mickelson, who began the tournament playing alongside Woods but ended it seven strokes back.

* * *

Shortly before halftime of a match against Austria, Joachim Loew, who is coaching pretournament favorite Germany at Euro 2008, was ejected for bickering with the refs. So he headed up to the stands to watch with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. From those choice seats, he saw the Germans limp into the quarterfinals thanks to a second-half free kick blasted by Michael Ballack.

The International Herald Tribune’s Rob Hughes turns his disgust with the match into an entertaining recap and plea for Portugal to knock off the Germans on Thursday. “The styles of the two opponents were suffocating and replicating one another, perhaps not surprisingly because the height of ambition for an Austrian these days is to earn his living in Germany’s Bundesliga,” Mr. Hughes writes.

Better things can be found in the past, the future and off the pitch of Europe’s premier national soccer tournament. First, a look backward at Sunday’s remarkable comeback by Turkey, which scored three goals in the last 15 minutes to beat the Czechs, 3-2, and advance to Friday’s quarterfinal against Croatia. “There have been beautiful games and fascinating talking points in Euro 2008, but not a match like this,” Martin Samuel writes in the Times of London. “Indeed, it was difficult to remember one in previous competitions, either, a game that turned on its head with moments remaining, that in one instant looked predictable and constant and in the next became a raging tempest, uncontrollable and thrilling.”

Tuesday’s matches — featuring the endlessly entertaining Dutch offense against Romania, and, in France and Italy, two talented sides desperate to score and win — may yet top that tempest. What explains the joyous, attacking football that Holland’s players have deployed to such surprisingly dominant effect? The Guardian’s Paul Doyle suggests the joke book. “When a Holland player is late for the bus or training or dinner, he must seek forgiveness by telling a joke at breakfast the next morning,” Mr. Doyle writes. “If it’s not funny, he must tell another one. If that bombs too, he must tell yet another one. And so on until everyone laughs. Lads being lads, of course, the squad all do their best to stifle their giggles so as to prolong their tardy team-mate’s embarrassment as much as possible. That’s why many of the Dutch players claim that the first thing they packed for this tournament was a good joke book.”

Another Doyle, John of Canada’s Globe & Mail, shares some scenes from Salzburg, in the middle of the tournament. Like his similarly surnamed counterpart in the U.K., this Mr. Doyle also appreciates the good humor of the event, displayed by raucous Swedish fans past midnight aboard a bus who cheer — what else? — an Ikea outlet.

* * *

When his Mets collapsed last September in historically inept fashion, Willie Randolph kept his job. When they lost three of four from the lowly Washington Nationals last month, he kept his job. Ditto after their five-game losing streak the following week, and another earlier this month. Then the Mets reeled off two straight wins Sunday and Monday, the latter at the start of a trip out West, and management reacted by firing Mr. Randolph — after three in the morning, New York time.

If the goal was to rile even those who wanted a new manager, the timing was exquisite. “Is this the best the Mets can do?” Mike Vaccaro asks in the New York Post. “Is this really what they are about? Can they really consider themselves a professional operation when they do the simplest task in sports, firing the manager, this wretchedly?”

The Mets should have taken notes about amicable, classy partings earlier Monday when the Seattle Mariners fired general manager Bill Bavasi at a press conference that included Mr. Bavasi. “In a slightly awkward but commendable appearance, Bavasi answered every question and even sat waiting for more,” Jim Moore writes in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “If I were him, I would have been pounding something on the rocks and, to his credit, that’s what he said he’d be doing later.”

* * *

Bill Werber, an 11-year major leaguer whose teammates included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove, shared memories with the Washington Post’s Dave Sheinin ahead of his 100th birthday this Friday. Mr. Sheinin relates just a few of the 28 stories he heard, and leaves you wishing he’d told them all.

– Tip of the Fix cap to readers John Falck and Kenneth Owen.

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix.

Comments (5 of 6)

I don't think you can capture the Turkey vs. Czech game in words. You had to watch it live. The last fifteen minutes was by far the most thrilling, intense and dramatic of any sporting event over the weekend.

4:16 pm June 17, 2008

woc wrote:

It was amazing to see. I had the chance to be there in person. What a beautiful course and a beautiful round of golf played by both Tiger and Rocco, who had just as many if not more fans. Neither one was ever out of contention, and each kept fighting back to tie it up or go up by one. The crowds were amazing, especially for a Monday 18-hole playoff, but how often does that happen? What a story and what a day.

1:23 pm June 17, 2008

Jason Russell wrote:

What an epic tournament. As if the 18-hole playoff wasn't enough, it came down to the 91st hole. Wow. We'll be talking about this one for years to come.

1:08 pm June 17, 2008

Boomer in CA wrote:

Rocco the ultimate underdog fought the battle of his professional golf life. He lost the fight but came out a winner in the game of golf.

1:01 pm June 17, 2008

bundoriyagyu wrote:

Magnificent! I must confess that I watched the playoff and I was rooting for Rocco. Not that I have anything against Tiger, I have only the most profound admiration for him. But I suspect that I am not alone in thinking of the "New York Yankees" syndrome. He is so predictably the one to beat that I think that many people think the same. It would be nice to see an underdog like Rocco pull the upset. I have nothing against Tiger. He is arguably one of the finest golfers of the last half century. But it is nice to see someone who appears unbeatable(no one truly is, as Tiger likely would tell you), occasionally take one on the chin. Remember the ancient Roman tradition, where the victorious general was accompanied on his chariot ride into Rome by someone who kept repeating "All Glory is fleeting".

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